With the immigration crisis at the southern border, the Biden administration announced they were going to give legal status to spouses of illegal immigrants. However, the Biden program, which a U.S. district judge put on hold this past Monday, is now called the “parole in place.”
Florida and 15 other states sued the Biden administration, arguing that granting a pathway to citizenship to some illegal immigrants violated federal law.
The Biden administration “is illegally using parole’ in a systematic way to advance their open-borders agenda,” said Florida Attorney General (AG) Ashley Moody.
Other state Attorneys General agreed with Moody, stating the Biden rule would have rewarded over 1 million illegal aliens with the opportunity for citizenship after breaking our country’s laws—and incentivized countless more.
The Biden plan would permit noncitizen spouses who have lived in the U.S. for 10 years as of June and are judged not to pose a threat to public safety or national security to apply for permanent residency. This would have covered around 500,000 illegals, including 50,000 children.
In their lawsuit, AG Moody and other State AGs accused the Biden White House of bypassing Congress to create a pathway to citizenship for political gains and if enacted, would have incentivized illegal immigration. They also went after the Department of Homeland Security, accusing them of abusing their power.
Inside the lawsuit, AG Moody, along with the other state plaintiffs, said if the plan was enacted, states like Florida would bear the financial burden that would cause them to spend millions of dollars each year on illegals, and it would lead to increased crime and unemployment.
In April of this year, Florida Daily reported the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration released numbers showing health care for illegal aliens was costing Florida taxpayers around $566 million dollars.